Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
[Music] do [Music] [Music] so [Music] good morning good afternoon good evening wherever you are in the world it’s Dr. Janice Fortman with Relationship Matters. I hope everyone is having a very wonderfully blessed day or evening. This particular episode is all about the relationship with our bodies. It’s all about health and wellness, how to feel good, how to look good, how to be as healthy as we possibly can. And my guest today is someone that I’ve known for a while. As a matter of fact, we grew up in the same community. He is now, wait, not now, he has been the mayor of Hazel Crest, Illinois, which for people who don’t live in Illinois, it’s a booming, booming, thriving suburb of Chicago. And the reason it’s booming and thriving is because of the mayor, Mayor Bernard Allberry. So let me bring him in now. Hello, how are you doing?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Janice, great to see you. Thank you for having me on your show.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Well, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am very, very happy to see you today. Um, and what I want to do is talk about health and wellness, especially where it concerns you. I want you to talk about how you became the healthy, vibrant man that you are today.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Not from the beginning? From the beginning, well, you know, the start was like most beginnings, uh, you always have something happen when you really want to change your life. Historically, I’ve been very active. I was an athlete in high school. Matter of fact, I was on George Washington Carver’s very, very first football team in the community that we grew up in. Uh, I was in the Air Force for nine and a half years, so I’ve always been pretty active. But in the course of life, you know, you have children, you get busy. Over that time, I, you know, got involved with parties, gained a few pounds here and there, and just, you know, all our lives have been taught to eat a certain way, you know, eat a lot of meat, you know, you have your big pans of mac and cheese, and holidays you eat so you’re so full that you have to sleep for two hours after you finish. All right, about two years ago, well, you know, my wife, uh, and leukemia, she ended up passing in 2019.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I’m sorry to hear that.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah, well, I was very sorry to hear that, yes, yes. And so after that, you know, I became started to take an assessment of my lifestyle, you know, now I’m eating out a lot, just eating. Then COVID hit, so you know, we couldn’t even go anywhere. But right around when COVID first began, around April of 2020, I went and received my three-month A1C check because I’m type 2 diabetic.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh, okay.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
I’m type 2, I was a type 2, I am a type 2 diabetic, and also I had some blood pressure issues, you know, stressful, my blood pressure went up a little bit. I was on a small dosage of medication for my blood pressure. A1C, it was, you know, normal is like five, you know, 5.6 or something like that. So when I went in, and I’ve been managing, now you gotta remember those, I’ve been type 2 diabetic for maybe 13, 14 years, taking Metformin, constantly increasing my dosage because the doctor said, “Hey, you know, it’s high blood sugars, I need to take more Metformin.” At that time, I was on 2000 milligrams a day, thousand years.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Now, now, um, if that’s, I’m assuming that’s a high dosage.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Very high, that’s not how much you could take without being on insulin. I was at that point, uh, whatever, my A1C was 7.6, which is considered to be pretty high type 2. Around 6, I was 7.6, didn’t realize, um, you know, they probably told me it was high before, but I really didn’t pay attention. Okay, more medication, you know, and thinking like a manager. But at that time, I was beginning to take a look at my life and I said, you know, that’s not good, so I need to change, I do something to change. So I began to start changing little things, you know, on my own, just thinking, cutting back on some of the carbs I was eating, cutting back, you know, go to a lot of events, being married, making sure I didn’t go to the wine bar and just kind of cut back on that because of sugar that’s in that. And three months later, I went back and my blood sugar had went down.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Wait a minute, it’s sugar and wine?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah, quite a bit.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
All of you connoisseurs of wine, okay, because you know I am a South Side wine diva.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
I guess I’m in a good background, give everything up, you’ll cut back a little bit. Okay, so I cut back a little bit that time and went back three months later, cause you take it every three months, went down a little bit, you know, it was once from like I said 7.6 went out to like 7.3, but it was a change and I said, oh, that’s good. So I kicked it up a little bit more, began to exercise a little bit more, again cutting back on some of the foods I was eating. But at that time, the doctor wanted to put me on another medication, said look, he had 7.5 where 4 or whatever I was at that time, and he said I can give you this medication which would drop it even more. Now you gotta remember, I’m already at the top of that informant. Now I told no, it went down a few points, I want to take, I want to see with dieting or just watching what I’m doing eating, how much change that would make because I look like I’m making some small progress. So he agreed, he agreed not to put me on the other medication if I follow, uh, continue to do what I was starting to do. So I went back around about November of last year and this was those small changes, my numbers, uh, no, not November, it was September, my numbers changed a little bit, so went down to like almost seven. I was really encouraged then, so I said, oh wow, I can, I can do this, let me really, uh, start to work on this thing. And at that, at that point, I was over, it was really bad, I had developed an organization called the South Southwest Strategic Partnership Group, which is associated with organizations, not-for-profits to deal with the virus in the Southland because unlike Chicago, we didn’t have a department of health department, education, you know, department of, uh, human resources that dealt with large issues, that’s COVID. We have a lot of small organizations in the Southland, but not at one organization or one organization that deal with those issues. So we developed this, uh, group to deal with that. During that time, uh, I was on a call with one of the, uh, individuals that’s involved the program who had gave us some social workers to actually work with us with the program, uh, Dr. Phyllis West, who was at Governor State University, and she was drinking some green drink. Okay, I guess it was chlorophyll, I didn’t know at that time, man. So I made this remark, being me, that stuff doesn’t look real good. I’m matter of fact, I look kind of nasty. I shouldn’t have said that, but anyway, and she said, why are you talking about my drink? You know, I even know me, you talk about my dream. And I said, yeah, I was wondering what that was. She told me it was, and it was something that’s good for cleansing your body and things like that. So later on, I asked her, you know, I said, where are you a vegan or something that, you know, because I’m not getting interest on how I can get better. And she said, yeah, right, telling me about, you know, how cutting back on me can actually probably help you with your battle at the things you’re trying to do with diabetes. So I begin.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Now you’re talking about all meat? Oh, you said cutting back on me, so did.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
So she would start slow, you could think about this, start slow. And so I said, okay, so, uh, during that process, I started started to cut back on, I started eating chicken and turkey, you know, right before Thanksgiving. So I started making turkey soup and, you know, boiled chicken and cutting back on the bread, cutting back a little bit more on the wine and doing that from November, January, went back to the doctor and he said, what are you doing? He said, your numbers are really coming down. He said, you’re about, you know, you’re a little bit under seven, you know, almost like six nine or whatever, 6.9, and you’re losing a little bit weight. And so it’s like, whatever you do when it’s working, keep it up. Now I’m saying, wow, this stuff might work. So slowly I began to go ahead.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I was, I was going to ask, what, yeah, were you overweight with, because I don’t remember you being overweight.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Well, well, most of us look at each other, most of us are overweight, but we so used to seeing people looking a certain way, we okay. I weighed five six and a half, I weighed at that time about 180 pounds, 180, you know, I was, you know, I just play sports, always been kind of large, but, uh, but 180, it looked good on me, you know, I didn’t look heavy. Yeah, but as I started researching and looking at what my body weight should be, you know, because I have a brother, not, I have six brothers, I had six bucks, five of us now, and most of us are the same height, but my brother, uh, Kyle, we’re all the same, right, but he weighs about 150, 155, 116. He always has weighed that, but he wasn’t, I played football, so I lived a lot of ways, my brother Melvin and I, so we were kind of, you know, large guys for our height because we played a lot of sports, but as you get older, you’re not, I’m not playing the sports anymore, I’m just trying to be healthier, and, you know, I changed my diets, my body just started to adjust on his own because I was eating a lot, I started adding more vegetables, I added more, uh, uh, fruit, I started eating, setting eggs and bacon and sausage in the morning, I’ll eat oatmeal with fruit with no sugar, uh, you know.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
No bacon?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
No bacon.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
No bacon?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
I know it was hard, it was no bacon, and so I just thought, and really my taste buds began to change, you know, I really didn’t crave it a lot, I was eating a whole lot of food, but I just was not, I was eating less and less meat. So the last time I went to knock three months after that, I referred by March, my, my blood sugar was 6.6, it was really good, I was like, wow, uh, and I had not really noticed people because I was losing weight, I didn’t notice, but I stepped on the scale and I was weighing about 165, which I’ve never weighed 160, even in high school, uh, and from there to now, uh, I weigh about 160, my waist is about 30, uh, I went from a 36 to 30, um, I’m healthier, I go to the gym twice a week, and for the last four months, I’ve been mostly just plant-based, I haven’t eaten any meat, fish, chicken, or anything, I’ve been eating these products that you could buy at the store, like the chicken nuggets and possible burgers, uh, they even have some sausage that tastes like sausage, and, um.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Is that soy?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Some of this soy, some of it is, uh, tofu, some of it a vegetable, black bean, like they got black bean burgers, uh, black bean burgers that they sell, you know, so I’ll eat that, uh, but mostly, uh, nuts, uh, beans, you know, whatever. I was a kid, I, I think when I grew up in, in the neighborhood, I think out of seven boy, I think we had beans like three times a week, so thank you.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
[Laughter] You know what, I’m not eating another bean, but you know.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah, but you know, eating beans when we were young, uh, actually it was healthy, it was cheap, you know, which is why you.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Right.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
And, and I thought, you know, bees, big lima beans, little lava beans, black eyed peas, baby, every day, every night, they know, thank you, but it was healthy, but we didn’t know, we didn’t know, we, but you know, that was a big filler, family of seven boys, and we ate everything, and couldn’t afford to eat people, you know, have me fall down, we had me, you know, the big holidays in July, before Labor Day, everybody’s out on the back cooking, you know, but we didn’t have a lot of meat, so as I transitioned, I mean, but you know, we still had big holidays, and changing that was, uh, I think, you know, you always, every commercial you see is about eating, you know, when you sit at home.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yes.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
You know, you’re always craving for food, but I didn’t start reading books, I read Dr. Terry Mason, who, uh, is a urologist, used to be the head of Cook County Hospitals, uh, started reading some of his material, I think it’s, uh, and some other physicians that are talking about plant-based diet, I started reading their material, and seeing what the studies show for diabetes and other ailments, and how that, you know, eating meat, processed meats, and the fats, and the body products, they know, it’s really helped increase our diseases, uh, I was talking to Dr. Terry Mason not too long ago, him and I did an interview, and one thing he said, he list all the diseases, the heart disease is number one, they say, you know, then you have stroke, then you have, you know, diabetes, and then you have, you know, cancer, he said, but all those, those are not what killed you, those are what happened from the byproduct of too much meat, too much fat, too much processed foods, that’s what’s causing you to have a heart attack, a heart attack is just a byproduct of what you put in your body, and so as I began to talk to different people, and then I always mentioned to him, I said, well, the diets I, I’ve been on, and he said, well, you can’t call it, don’t call it a diet, you know, call it a live it, you know, because it’s horrible, what I live it, don’t quite diet, call it live it, you say, because I diet, I live it, because the diet has that beginning and the end, and then you go back to what you used to do before, but if you make a lifestyle change, and you try to live your life, if you have a living, use food as something that you use to live, then you look at what you’re doing differently, you don’t look at it as a beginning and the end, you look as a lifestyle, and so, uh, with that, you know, what hit, when he said that’s all, he said, I got that from one of Israelites up, Mr. Prince out there on 70th Street, who has the, uh, so vegan restaurant, he said, he uses that, you will turn, he said, use that term, live it, not, not.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I like that, I like that.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
So now I’m in a different group, people that, they talk about, you know, what you eat, how it affects your body, how you can prevent some of the respiratory problems that we have, so how do we prevent diabetes, and how we reverse type 2 diabetes, because if I could keep going where I’m going, and get my blood A1C’s under 5, I’m basically has reversed my type 2 diabetes, and, uh.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Wow.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
So that’s, that’s to trap the road up, I’m on, uh, now I tell everybody like this, and Dr. Mason says this all the time, I’m not being anti-me, I tell people that I’m ant, I’m pro-health, and so if you go slowly, don’t try to do all at once, it’s just like smoking, you can’t change 66 years of lifestyle in two or three months, and so he add more vegetables, and have less meat, add more fruit, and less meat, add more beans, because beans are very healthy, you know, and people always say, what can I eat, I say, a whole gamut of things that you can eat, everything that grows, you can eat, you know, uh, and every plant you can eat, it’s just how you, how you prepare it, and I’ve done some recipes, I just made up, you know, I make portabella mushroom pizzas, you know, which I do.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Really?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yes, I’ve done oven roasted potatoes, where I slice them in round, and put sugar, I’m not sugar, but put pepper, and, and, uh, sea salt on it, and bake it in the oven, it’s delicious, it’s one of my go-to, saute mushrooms, and saute spinach, I love, I use avocado oil to make, make those things, and everything I eat is delicious, and really, your taste buds do start to change, and so I advocated, I’ve been in healthcare for 36 years, and working as a physical therapist assistant, and my wife and I own any physical therapy business, and we always see this repeat visitors, you know, especially with low back pain, hip pain, and, you know, most guys, the reason they got back pain, got a big front, you know, belly, little big, right, your spine starts, uh, collapse on top of each of itself, and you have low back pain, he has sciatica problems, um, but we’ve never treated the problem, we’ve always repeated the symptoms, you know, exercising, stretching, but they back again in no time, and so I think the, the cure is to try to change your lifestyle, and is it difficult, because we know, another conversation with Dr. Mason, he said, well, people say, my grandmother should live to be a hundred years old, and she ate everything, he said, wait, wait, wait, wait, she ain’t fat back, yes, and he said, yeah, and your grandma probably worked in the field three, 12, 13 hours a day, you know, what you do every day, you get up, get right on the computer, you’re not moving, right, and so you can’t expect the same results from somebody who actually worked very hard, very physical, uh, since they probably were children, to some, to now, where we don’t work as much, we don’t walk, right, we’re not as active physically, so I’m excited, you know, uh, people ask me all the time, but a lot of people say, don’t lose another pound, you’re getting too small, I said, that’s because you’ve been seeing me big all these years, that’s both of us are pretty big people, you know, but if you, if you look at what you, your body weight should be, and where you are, most of us are, you know, they call us clinically obese, you know, uh, so that’s why I’m at with this, this journey, it’s a journey, you know, it’s a journey.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
And so, uh, Bernard, how long did it take you not to want to eat, um, fried chicken, barbecue, you know, the stuff that, when you drive through the hood, and you smell it, yeah, it’s like, I mean, how long did it take for you not to really, you know, want to eat stuff that tastes, well, I’m not gonna, I’ll say stuff that tastes really natural for you.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Well, because I found other things that taste good, and I didn’t sleep, you know, when I went to my campaign, I remember right at COVID at 20, I was going through, uh, my political campaign, well, that was early this year, 21, and so, yeah, we had chicken and stuff like that, and I was still eating a little chicken back in April, the small pieces of it, you know, but the process was that I found different restaurants, different places, like Majanis off of, uh, 71st in the exchange in Chicago.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
What is it called again?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Majanis.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Majanis, okay.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Majanis, and, um, uh, uh, the owner of the restaurant, uh, said, okay, I’m okay, I want to mess his name up, uh, but, uh, Chef T, uh, he, his restaurant, I went there and had, before I first walked in there, he had hot water cornbread, greens, black beans, he had these, uh, tacos, uh, it was a cauliflower tacos, fried cauliflower tacos, it was delicious, and so I just changed what I started eating, and, you know, black beans and rice, you know, I still got some of his hot water cornbread in my freezer, I froze around.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Well, you know what, uh, a lot of people, uh, don’t know what hot water cornbread is.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Oh, well, yeah, you know, I mean, in our culture, we know hot water cornbread because it was the cheapest thing to make, I mean, if you had corn meal, you know, but hot water corn bread is good, people, if you ever, if you’ve never had any hot water cornbread, google the recipe, that’s good.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
And Sadakia is the owner of.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Okay.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
And, uh, so even when I was running my campaign, as I had changed my diet, uh, you could tell, you got my, some of my campaign workers to tell you, I brought, we had a, uh, uh, I fed them a lot of times, and they got work, hard work there, campaigning, chopped off some black beans and white, uh, yellow rice in with some hot water cornbread, they’re like, what is this, see this, I eat it, oh my god, this is good, you know, I got some fried cauliflower, barbecue sauce, you know, uh, and so, uh, as I start bringing it to people I’m around, they’re like, wow, this is pretty good, because we forget the simple things that we used to eat that were very good, you know.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
A lot, you know, it’s easy to get some 10-piece tucking fried chicken, you know, but, uh, I, I, I slowly entered in on them, and now they ask, where’s that restaurant, I saw this day, I went 11th Street now, right off the Dan Ryan, you know, right by the police station, go right across there, you got a small little restaurant there.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh, really?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah, so I go there, get my, they got a, they got a, uh, they got these little bowls, which is black beans and rice, black beans, yellow rice, the grains with hot water cornbread, it’s really, really good, so I’ll go there and grab my person once in a while.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So, you know what, yeah, that’s it, I, I think, you know, it’s, it’s wonderful that you, you’ve gone that route, and actually, you’re a testament to how, you know, you tell how you can reverse bad health into good health just by what we eat. Now, I tried, um, I, I went to a Tony Robbins thing where, um, you know how he gives this big thing, and, uh, one of his exercises was to stop eating meat for at least 21 days and just eat vegetables. Well, also, no sugar, no dairy, and, uh, and so I did it, and it was amazing to me that when I would look at meat, it was like, you know what I mean, especially if I was in a, in a store, and it was raw, and, and, uh, so I, and, and I started eating a lot of vegetables, and I cut out, if you know, everything that he said to cut out, and what I noticed, and I wondered if you noticed this too, my brain was clearer.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yes.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
You know, you don’t have that sleepy, that sleepiness, that, that dullness, I mean, you think clear, it’s sharper, faster, you know.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, especially that stuff you forget, cause you, oh, I’m older, I still forget that stuff, but, you know, I’m just joking.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Hey, you ain’t joking.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
But seriously, you process, I process easier, I am not, I could eat a meal now and not have to sleep for two hours afterwards, you know, I can actually eat and beat up, read a book, I’m not sleepy and tired from what I’ve eaten, which makes me tired, you know, uh, I’m still working on a dairy thing, you know, I’ve cut out milk, because I like those towels anyway, yeah, I still have cutting back on eggs, and I love cheese, I’m cutting back on that slowly, but there’s so many substitutes now, now as I, in this, this group, I find out different substitutes for food, different plant-based cheeses, plant-based, like my brother drinks soy milk now, and so, you know, but the key thing is that, you know, as, as we get older, you know, I’m trying to live longer and live healthier, you know.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Right.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
And so that’s, that’s kind of what I’m trying to do, and then trying to pass it on, uh, to my, my children, because I know diabetes, they say, uh, it’s all, it’s in your family, no, it’s in your family because it’s what you eat, and so we, we eat a certain way, we pass it on to our, our children, they pass on to families, so we get the diseases, we get the diabetes, we get the high blood pressure, we get, you know, the obesity, because that’s the lifestyle that we live, and that’s a standard American diet, that’s what they tell you should eat, you know, this much meat, this much milk, this month, you know, this much dairy, this much vegetables, and vegetables the smallest thing on it, you know, uh, but it should be reversed, you know.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Right, right, right. Now, uh, I want to ask you another question, uh, uh, what about, uh, GMO, what is it, genetically modified foods, uh, do you stay away from that too?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
I try to, everything natural and grow from the ground. I have some friends who have gardens who bring me grains and beans and onions, you know, uh, shoot, I was in the garden, I didn’t know, I didn’t know pumpkins become a flower before they become a pumpkin. I was, I was at a guy’s garden, he’s had this big orange flower, and said, man, what kind of flower is that? He said, where you from, from girl? He said, that’s a pumpkin. I see, you made pumpkin as a flower before?

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yes.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
I didn’t know that.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I didn’t eat this, I don’t feel bad now, I didn’t know that, I thought it was a seed.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
I did too, it’s a flower, and it turns into a pumpkin, I was like amazed. So I’ve got a little education also along the way about how plants really grow, but I’ve had some, I have another mayor, uh, mayor of Richton Parkway, Rainbow, he has a garden in his backyard, and he gave me some onions and some squash, and it is so good, it’s just unbelievable, it’s totally different than the store stuff. And so, so I’m learning a lot along the way, and you know, I’m learning how to cook differently, I’m a big barbecuer, because you know, well, I grew up at, everybody barbecue, but now barbecue, I give me some, you know, like we love some sweet corn, put it on the grill, you know, I give me some portobello mushrooms with gorilla, you know, uh, I grill some grilled vegetables, and they still have the impossible burgers, they have the, they have the veggie hot dogs, and really, they don’t taste much different.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I was going to ask you, well, you barbecue, what do you barbecue?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
They have hamburgers, you know, plant-based burgers, black bean burgers, corn, you know, they have ribs, yeah, they have everything, everything you can think of, they happen in plant-based, because my son, my youngest son, Bernard III, uh, he’s, and he’s a big weight lifter, and he’s, you know, he’s a big guy, and so he’s changed all this meats, he buy plant-based meats now.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
And he’s passing on to his kids.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
All right, well, Bernard, I gotta go to a quick commercial, and then I’ve got a couple of questions that came in, and, um, uh, so, uh, we will be right back, don’t go [Music] away [Music] and I am so happy that your relationship with your daughter has [Music] improved [Music] [Music] all righty, all right, now, got a couple questions here.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yes, ma’am.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So the first one is, what is your favorite food or meal?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Oh, my favorite food of meal are, is sauteed spinach with mushrooms, green peppers, red pepper, red bell peppers, and, uh, onions, that’s my favorite, I love it.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So you put all that together?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
It’s so, you know, I’m listening because I tried it on, I like, I’ll taste spinach, but.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So you put all that in your, in your, in your spinach when you saute it?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Change my spinach, and I’ll chop up some portobello mushrooms or mushrooms and put them in there, saute that, now get some, uh, red, red bell peppers, yellow bell peppers, and green bell peppers, I’ll chop that up, I’ll put it in there, then I chop up some onions, put them in there, then I’ll drop in some, uh, um, garlic, and drop it in there with a little sea salt, mix it up, I’m all good.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
That sounds good, that sounds good. And so you have a, you know, you tell me about your recipes, and so what is your favorite recipe? Is that your favorite recipe, or do you have a different one?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
That’s my, my go-to, uh, but a favorite recipe, I don’t know, I’m experimenting with so much, I love my portobello mushroom pizzas, that was the first thing I tried when I started trying to get really off of meat, because portobello mushroom has such a thick flavor to it, and so, you know, when I take that and hollow out the inside of the large portobello mushroom and put, you know, I put in a plant-based, uh, pasta sauce with some oregano and garlic and sliced onions, and at that time, like, I was still eating cheese, full of cheap mozzarella cheese on top of it, stick it in the oven after I, you know, after I, uh, wrapped, you know, I put a little avocado oil all over it and put all that inside the portobello mushrooms, slapped it in there, maybe some sauteed greens, put all my other stuff inside that, and then I usually, if I’m really, really, really hungry, I’ll get one of these, like, impossible burgers, put that on the skillet, I eat all that together, and I’m like hog heaven.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So have you ever thought about, uh, writing a cookbook? I mean, he says, since you have discovered, uh, the plant-based lifestyle, and, and, you know, to not, not just a recipe book, but, you know, not just a recipe book where you just have your recipes, but I’m giving you an idea, and, you know, I do edit books, so, uh, shameless clue, but anyway, I do help people write their books, uh, uh, but, you know, just, you know, everything, the good stuff that happens if you eat this and you eat that, and, and as far as your, uh, like, high blood pressure, and, like, maybe charts in there, so if you’re eating this, uh, for so many days or so many months, you know, check this, check, have you ever thought about that?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
No, I’m still a rookie at this, I don’t know, it’s a lot of people out there doing it, I’m just, I just go and make up stuff, you know.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah, but, I mean.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
To answer your questions, have not, I just kind of, you know, I’ve, you know, uh, I’ve made a few sellers, uh, I had some vegetarian friend, uh, showing me how to make a salad, and she showed me how to make the, uh, salsa, you know, with lemon and little honey, and, you know, and mix it all together, and forgot what’s the other stuff she’s gonna put in there, so I make on my own dressing, but, you know, people, I should just show me things, I just kind of edit them, edit them, and, uh, try to make up stuff as I go along, especially when I’m all hungry, you know, sometimes you get so, you know, I’m working, I’m not really working, I’m the mayor, I ain’t working a job, job, oh, but I really want, when I want to eat something, I’m, I found at my best.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah, we were, we were working 24 hours.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Right, but the thing is, my goal too is, I get a, a white potato, like I say, I put some avocado oil in the pan, I’ll chop it in round circles, and, uh, and I got this from someone, and I’ll put my sea salt, pepper flakes, uh, garlic salt, and black pepper, and avocado, stick in the oil oven for 20 minutes, and slop, slice them up, they come out, and potatoes are so crispy, and, uh, I can eat that, and that’s, that’s, I’m good for the day.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Well, see, that’s what I’m saying, you know, uh, you’ve dropped some nice kind of recipe gems, and, I mean, write them down, have a, have a book, you know, especially, you know, and I’m going to say this, a lot of people in our culture, I think, are not vegetarians, or, or, are, I’m not gonna say a plant-based diet, but a plant-based liver.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Um, because they don’t know, including me, what I can do with different vegetables, you, you see what I’m saying, uh, and it’s, and we like seasoning.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
You know what I’m saying, and, and, uh, so we need, I don’t know, there might be some books out there, I, you know, I haven’t really researched to try, you know, but, but, uh, you really should.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
All right, I’ll take that consideration, I sell them in the South Suburbs, we’ll flip everybody plant-based halfway, at least.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I mean, when you think about it, when you look around at children now, when they talk about children having diabetes, you know, children having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart problems, and you see a lot of overweight children, and I know it has a lot to do with processed, processed foods, you know, and a lot of meat, um, you know, and, uh, I think a lot of it is really because just lack of, lack of knowledge.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
You know what I’m saying?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
I have to agree, yeah, I, um, what we found, and again, talking about, uh, Dr. Terry Mason, we were having a conversation, they said some of the concerns he has right now with children is that children palettes are not, not used to real food anymore, that we’ve been feeding them so much fried food, so much processed food, they only have a palette for lettuce, tomatoes, I mean, you know, you see some kids, they get a hamburger or lettuce and tomatoes and pickles on it, they take all that off, they eat the bread and the meat, and so generationally now, kids, kids, kids are not just not eating vegetable, they only have a taste for, you know, and that’s, that’s detrimental because those are those vitamins and nutrients are needed to grow, to get stronger, you know, and, and people say, well, you know, they need meat for protein, and, and again, as Dr. Mason, I quote him a lot because he has a really funny saying, he said, well, cows don’t eat meat, they twice as big as we are, they have twice the muscle man, matter of fact, they’re the middle man, and then we eat them, cut the middle man out, just eat the vegetables in the fruit, cut the middle man out, you don’t have to eat the middle man, you know, they’re not getting enough protein, they’re getting big, you know, they were drinking milk, he said, cow’s milk is, is made to take a big, a small calf to be a two-ton cow, why are we drinking cow milk, you know, so he, the little nuggets of information he drops are very hilarious, but they’re so true, we don’t think about that.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah, yeah, so now I know you’re having something special coming up this weekend.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
[Music] Well, you have a health and wellness fair coming up this weekend, this Saturday, tell us all about it.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
This is our annual Hazel Nut Festival, and it’s called the Hazel Nut Festival because Hazel Crest has hazelnut trees, and hazelnuts, the plant itself is in Hazel Crest, and that’s where the name came from, but this festival is something we’ve been celebrating for many, many, many years, we start off with a parade, and the parade goes along our streets, and we, you know, have candy for the kids, and we have marching bands, we have dance groups all through the parade, then after parade, we ended at our public safety building, which is located at 3 0 West 170th Place, and in Hazel Crest, and we have, uh, vendors, we have music, we have, uh, performers, I mean, it’s a great event, we have rice for the kids, and we also have, we’re going this year, which is different because of my journey in plant-based, we’re adding on a plant-based healthcare festival, which is, uh, being, uh, supported by the community, and, uh, what’s, I guess, what’s her name, uh, Val Warner from ABC Windy City, she’s going to be on there as one of our hosts, you’re going to be on there, and you’re going to be speaking about being healthy as we age, and then we have Dr. Terry Mason and myself, we’re going to be interviewing along with you first with Verwanna than us, uh, talking about plant-based diets and our journey and his journey, uh, he’ll get a chance to tell you about his journey because he was a stick a day eater, he had a snake special cut every day, and so he’s gonna talk about what that got him, uh, and why he’s changed his diet, and so it’s going to be a fun feel informative day, we’re going to be doing COVID testing also, uh.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Oh, really?

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
We’re looking to buy COVID vaccines that day also, people come out as people be back, come out and vaccinate.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Can I get a booster?

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Well, we don’t have the boosters yet, yeah, but we do have a little tag that says vaccinated and proud, we get to the first thousand people that come, and so they’ll get a tag that says that.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Wait, hold up, wait, wait, wait, you said the first thousand people, what we’re using, how many people do you expect?

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
We use on an average without pre-covering, we had about, we just averaged 2,000 people, and so with COVID, we’re thinking we’re going to have a little bit over 2,000 people, and so.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
That is wonderful.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
It’s a great celebration, and it’s for the whole Southland and Chicagoland area, we have people come from everywhere, and so they get a chance to see Val Warner interview you, interview Terry Mason and myself, and we do have two live radio stations coming out, the old WNUA, which is now online, they’ll be there talking and interviewing, they will ask you to say a few words, interview you, they’ll be talking to me and Terry Mason, and then we also have, uh, the stepper station 101.9, they will be there, uh, planning stepping music, uh, interviewing us, uh, they have these steppers that are going to come out, we have Casper, he’s going to castle.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Okay.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
And he’s going to be, uh, we’re going to do a big Casper slide, healthcare Casper slide, Lady Red is our host of the events of that day along with.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Okay, I know her, she’s a D, it’s a DJ, right?

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yes, and then we have Cisco, who also DJ, he will be there to, uh, you know, play most of the music, uh, now Lady Ray is a radio personality, not the other lady you’re thinking about.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Oh, okay.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
CJ Ram, who’s, who grew up in our community, uh, she’s not these, she had another gig because she couldn’t.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
No, okay.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
You couldn’t come, so yeah, DJ, and then we have, uh, the radio personality Lady Red from, uh, I think it’s V103, one of those radio stations, she’ll be, she’ll be there, and so it’s going to be a fun-filled day and full of information, and we’re going to have a great living as we try to get people to change their lifestyle.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
You know, that, I mean, it just sounds like something that everybody who is in the Chicagoland area, even if you’re not in the Southland, but if you are north or west, that you should come to this health and wellness fair. And one thing that you said that I did not know, and I guess a lot of people didn’t know, I, I remember when I saw it said hazelnut, and I thought that was a typo, you know, like hazelnut, shouldn’t it be Hazel Crest? But then when you said that hazelnuts grow in Hazel Crest, Illinois, hazel with hazelnut trees.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yes.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Wow, so do you, do you all pick the hazelnuts? I mean, do you all harvest them or?

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I don’t, I don’t think we have as many as we used to, but.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Okay.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
People who’ve been here a long time, so you can eat little hazelnuts.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah, I’m not, I haven’t gone that far into plant-based hazelnuts.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah, no, so I don’t know, but hazelnuts.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
When you’re having a hazelnut festival.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah, it’s just a long tradition that we’ve had in the village of Hazel Crest that, you know, that.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Wow, wow, I think that’s going to be a fantabulous day.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yes.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Especially, uh, when I speak.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Well, of course, that’s why you speaking first, we want people to come out here, what you have to say, so you can and drop some knowledge on, uh, people because we don’t really talk about, you know, uh, staying healthy and aging, you know, as you age and, and, and, uh, for people who don’t know, I am a real live senior citizen, I’ve had my AARP card now for almost 30 years.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Wow.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I’m old.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
What?

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
No, no, no, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t use that old word, I’m, I’m, I’m seasoned.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yes.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
And the reason why, which is why what I’m going to talk about is aging and being healthy because as you get older, let me, I just want to say this a little bit, uh.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Okay.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Normally I work out three days a week with, uh, my workout buddy Maxine, and we went on vacation, and, uh, as a matter of fact, we went to Croatia, uh, to, uh.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Wait, to a, a household part, a household vessel, so like [Music] wait, but even, even older folks like house music, right?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Okay.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
And so when we were gone two weeks, so today, uh, was the first time we exercised again, right? O M G, it was like we had never worked out ever before, and so when you start thinking about it, that’s really part of aging, being healthy as you age, it’s not just your diet, but you gotta move.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yes.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
I mean, you have to move, and it’s hard, you know, you first start out as, I mean, I got up at 5 30 this morning, I am not a morning person, not at all, but I want to stay healthy, you know, I want to still be able to move, and I am going to try my best to [Music] move towards plant-based again. When I did it for 21 days with Tony, Tony Robinson thing, I thought, oh wow, Tony Robbins thing, I thought, oh wow, this is great, but then one day, right down the street, and I’m like, I’m just going to get one chicken wing, that ain’t going to happen, one take away, that is not going to work.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
It didn’t.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
And that was all she wrote. I have a friend who was a vegan for a long time, and she decided, you know, I just want to taste one rib tip, that was awesome.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yeah.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
So I really, really admire you, uh, for really sticking to, uh, plant-based, you know, and like you said.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
It’s been a short time, I’m still.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah, but still in all, still in all, you know, uh, when you see the results, and you told us the results, that’s the most important thing. I don’t work out to try to have a girlish figure, because that’s over, you know, but I work out to stay healthy.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Yes.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
To stay healthy. Now, another question came in, and it’s, uh, the question was, we put so much in our bodies, but what is the healthiest food we can eat?

Mayor Bernard Allberry
The food that you grow, food that you can grow, that you grow, if you get a garden, if you can, and this is what I’ve learned from other folks, you know, if you have a garden, the healthiest food you can have is a group food that you grow yourself, but you know what you put in on it, you know what dirt you’re growing in, you know what you’re growing, and so you don’t have to worry about chemicals, you have to worry about, you know, uh, uh, whatever, uh, it’s growing, and it’s something that you grow, and, and you know what else, I, I know, you know, old times used to grow food all the time, I always knew people had a good, Miss the Sims and all those guys back up in Riverdale, where the river boat club used to be, they used to grow watermelons back there, corn back there, you know, and so we just go back there and pick fresh tomatoes, matter of fact, when I was growing up, if you walk, if I walk where the old car, new car is, they should have strawberries back there, we should go back there and pick strawberries as a kid, you know, uh, and you know, eat those strawberries was hanging on back there, so you know, what you can grow yourself, I think what I’ve learned over the short period of time is that the food you go yourself is the most healthiest food, because it’s fresh from the guards, you hear all these new, uh, restaurants, they got the, they call it from the garden to the table, right, so you know how fresh that is, so if you, if you’re doing it yourself, if you’re coming from your home garden to your table, you know how fresh, and they charge you so much extra money when you go to those places, so you can figure it, that food is the healthiest, anything that you grow yourself is the healthiest, because it’s coming from the ground to your, your body.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yes.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
All right, that’s my, yes.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Well, I’m gonna play this one more time for people [Music] all right, Bernard, I want to thank you for being my guest, and I hope that all of my viewers will really think about, and if you, if you haven’t already, move towards a plant-based diet, so you can be healthy and wealthy and wise, just like Mayor Bernard Allberry. So Bernard, thank you so much for coming and being my guest, and I will see you on Saturday.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Looking forward to it, Dr. Fortman, and thank you for, uh, helping me on your show. Now, we can watch this later on, this is gonna be recorded, be on Facebook Live, we can.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Oh yeah, it’ll be on Facebook, um, it’ll be on Facebook, uh, it’ll also be on YouTube, so they can go to my YouTube channel, Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman, and so, and it’ll be on YouTube forever.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Oh, okay, good.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
Yeah.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
We make sure we do this to everyone, for everybody, see all the great, not only information I talk about, the great permission that you have talked about, and, uh, I appreciate being on the show, and I’m excited about Saturday, let’s make it happen.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
All righty, okay, so you have the rest of your evening, be a very blessed evening, and go cook some of them potatoes.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
All right, I wish I could.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
All righty, bye bye.

Mayor Bernard Allberry
Thank you so much, good evening.

Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
All right, well, um, I’m going to try, that’s all I can say. I know that, um, I know that, uh, I probably, no, I’m not going to say that I’m going to not be on a plant-based diet, but a little bit, and, uh, Sandy Barnes Innis, okay, your 16-year-old grandson is showing you how to retrieve veggies and ferment for the winter, girl, that is wonderful, that is, is, is wonderful, and, uh, I hope to see as many people as possible on Saturday. I want you to come out to the Hazel Crest Health and Wellness Fair. Now, we’re going to go, and I think, uh, I guess he said that wine had a lot of sugar in it, so, uh, maybe, maybe, maybe I won’t drink a glass of wine or two this evening, maybe I’ll just drink, well, he said slowly, so, uh, I’ll just drink maybe a half glass of wine. So I will see all of you Saturday, and if I don’t see you Saturday, I will see you next Thursday, and we will have us a surprise guest. So remember, the show is all about relationships. Tonight or today, to morning, wherever you are, we talked about the relationship with your body and how important it is to maintain good health so you can have a positive relationship with your body. I will see you all next week. I want to thank all of you for, for viewing, and I want you to have the rest of your morning, afternoon, evening, be a very, very blessed morning, afternoon, or evening, and I’m going to play this one more time for you [Music] do [Music] do you